Strikes hit air passengers as flights cancelled

Travellers face travel disruption due to a 48-hour strike by French air traffic controllers and transport workers.

UK carriers are being forced to cancel up to 40 per cent of their French services today and tomorrow, with easyJet having to axe 118 flights today alone.

Most of the easyJet cancellations involve flights within France - but the scrapped services do include return flights to Paris from Gatwick, Belfast and Luton as well as a Gatwick-Toulouse return service.

British Airways and Ryanair are among other airlines which are affected and there could be some delays to non-French services that use French airspace.

This morning’s Ryanair flight to Alicante from Leeds Bradford airport was cancelled along with the airline’s 7.30pm flight to Faro.

EasyJet said: “Like all airlines flying to and from France, we expect significant impact to our flights during this period. We can assure our passengers we are doing everything possible to limit the inconvenience of this strike on them.”

EasyJet said it was contacting all affected passengers and was also advising them to check the status of their flight.

BA said: “We are doing all we can to minimise disruption to customers. We will be using larger aircraft as well as re-routing some flights to try to help as many customers as possible get to where they need to be.

“Unfortunately there will be some knock-on delays to other parts of our short-haul network as a result of the strike action, given how much airspace in Europe will be affected. We are sorry for any disruption to customers’ travel plans.”

Flybe is cancelling 16 flights today including services to Paris from Manchester, Birmingham and Exeter as well as some flights from Southampton.